Doug Conarroe

Historian. Author. Tinkerer. Formerly @northfortynews @thenewstribune @denverpost

[Jack Fischer @Astro2fish]

I took this photo on my last day of living on the International Space Station. Living in space is pure wonder, but it's more than just the views - it's the perspective. I wish I was better with words. No matter how many times I try, I can never quite capture what it really feels like—the deep sense of awe, the humility that hits you when you realize how tiny we are in the universe, yet how connected we all are down there. It’s a privilege I’ll carry with me forever, one that makes me want to be a better human.

[FOX31 Denver KDVR @KDVR]

Man arrested after surfing naked on top of moving locomotive https://t.co/SKO4o65YNS

[Cowboy State Daily @daily_cowboy]

A Casper man says his wife is making him sell his beloved Bigfoot-hunting rig — a lifted 1984 AMC Eagle wagon with 150,000 miles he says attracts too much female attention. "I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it hurt any less,” he said.

https://t.co/NFcCidB6Hj

[uwo's lab | the funny science man @uwutoowo1]

IN 90 MINUTES (6PM EST) we're gonna be testing a theoretical speaker build from the gigabrains on the DIYaudio subreddit, the Shitwoofer

[Mark Denney @MarkDenneyPhoto]

Some of the most beautiful trees I've ever had the privilege of photographing.

[Medical Xpress @medical_xpress]

#Morning #CaffeineIntake is linked to a significant boost in mood and enthusiasm, with effects consistent across individuals regardless of consumption habits, anxiety, or sleep issues. @SciReports https://t.co/9LvjyIWsJT https://t.co/EXnpNfWTkm

[Doug Conarroe @conarroe]

But gross income is not changing. So if we’re not tied to adjusted gross income why all the fuss? Also the governor said a solution was “decoupling the federal foreign-derived tangible income.” Would that require a Tabor vote? If not, why not just decouple the federal decreases?

[Jesse Aaron Paul ☀ @JesseAPaul]

@Lightloveguide That's the reason for the hole in the budget. Mismanagement argument can be made about where the existing dollars are spent, but the hole is caused by changes to the federal tax code.

[Doug Conarroe @conarroe]

Is this you coach? @3YearLetterman

[Cowboy State Daily @daily_cowboy]

A 29-year-old Cheyenne man was arrested Monday for taking a motorized golf cart off-roading inside the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. He was “visibly intoxicated,” drove the cart on a motorized walkway and faces a list of criminal charges.
https://t.co/YO5O40dnQd

[Phys.org @physorg_com]

#Engineered bacteria now produce milk proteins with key nutritional and functional properties, enabling sustainable, animal-free cheese and yogurt that closely mimic traditional dairy at the molecular level. https://t.co/ewcUxdt7bf https://t.co/lfWZrYVlkG

[Brian Potter @_brianpotter]

This week on Construction Physics, I look at why homes in the western US are so expensive. https://t.co/3aft6NDoI3

[Phys.org @physorg_com]

#A new theoretical framework suggests time may have three #Dimensions, with space emerging as a secondary effect, potentially offering a path toward unifying #QuantumMechanics and gravity. @uafairbanks https://t.co/6cnPp20Y0R https://t.co/EIDL2l43p8

[Doug Conarroe @conarroe]

@abuvthefold Starlink

[Paul E Williams @PEWilliams_]

Time lapse of these 77 modular units going up over the course of a week:

[New Deal Murals @NewDealMurals]

Walsenburg, Colorado Post Office
The Spanish Peaks - Earl Blumenschein (1937)

[Doug Conarroe @conarroe]

Data being deleted by Flock after 30 days isn’t really true. Their AI algorithm retains datapoints forever. Example: A white van with a license plate and a damaged rear fender can be flagged six months later by Flock if the same van is photographed sans license plate.

[Rob Johnson @FreeRangeLawyer]

It doesn't look like much: a pole, a solar panel array, and a digital camera. But it's part of a vast, creepy surveillance program -- and an @IJ lawsuit challenging that program has survived a motion to dismiss.

The program is called "Flock," and it places cameras all over a jurisdiction to capture license plate data from passing cars. In Norfolk, VA, where @IJ sued, there are over 170 Flock cameras. And that's just one city. Flock's cameras are in over 5,000 cities nationwide.

The point of that network of cameras is to create a database of citizens' movements across the country. Police can query the database to see where a vehicle has been in any city within the Flock network. And police can access that data without a warrant or probable cause.

Flock describes itself as a "tech company eliminating crime." But its network has been subject to abuse. A police chief in Kansas, for instance, used the Flock network to stalk his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. When data is accessible without a warrant, that kind of abuse should be expected.

My colleagues @IJ sued in Norfolk, challenging this surveillance program as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The city moved to dismiss, and, late last week, the court allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

The court cited Carpenter, a case where the Supreme Court held that police need a warrant to access cellphone location data, and reasoned that the data captured by the Flock network is basically indistinguishable from the data in Carpenter. And that data allows for a level of surveillance that would have been totally alien at the nation's founding: "Historically it would have been nearly impossible for law enforcement to collect the same information as the Flock cameras and to the same magnitude without expending significant time, money, and labor."

That decision isn't the end of the case. The case now goes to discovery--and my colleagues will be demanding information from the city about how the Flock program operates. That information will inform the court's ultimate decision.

For now, though, this is a victory. The case proceeds, and this massive surveillance program is now in the crosshairs of a constitutional challenge.

[simon tobin @simontobin7]

Friday morning lights. Santa Cruz, Ca.

[LPB @lpborg]

Winter in the swamp.
Photos by Tia Maria Torres

[Cowboy State Daily @daily_cowboy]

Santa Claus seems to get into trouble along Highway 220 near Casper each Christmas season, left dangling over a cliff. Nobody knows how he gets there, but plenty come out to see Santa hanging on for dear life.

https://t.co/VT1myxn5bH

[Chris Lopez @alamosacitizen]

Fresh pauper graves at the old Spanish Cemetery in Alamosa. Thirty one in total. Here’s the story: https://t.co/c1o0GyGsYX #SanLuisValley #Colorado

[Doug Conarroe @conarroe]

And the forgotten art of hand talk.

[Cowboy State Daily @daily_cowboy]

Remembering Wyoming's Willie LeClair

Eastern Shoshone tribe member Willie LeClair walked dual worlds as a cowboy and an American Indian in Wyoming. His legacy is as a spiritual leader, storyteller and teacher who also had a “wicked sense of humor.”

https://t.co/EDXbW050Tf